Lausanne, 15 February 2013 - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeal filed by Katusha Management SA (Katusha) against the International Cycling Union (UCI) in relation to Katusha’s application for a license to participate in the UCI World Tour 2013 season.

Further to an investigation by the Auditor appointed by the UCI, the UCI Licensing Commission issued a decision on 10 December 2012 in which it refused Katusha’s application for the UCI World Tour 2013 season. On 20 December 2012, Katusha filed an appeal at the CAS against such decision requesting that it be set aside and that Katusha be registered as a UCI ProTeam for the 2013 season. On 14 January 2013, the UCI has granted the Continental licence to the team.

A CAS hearing was held on 8 February 2013 during which the parties and their representatives were heard by the CAS Panel in charge of this matter: Professor Luigi Fumagalli (Italy), President of the Panel, Mr Luc Argand (Switzerland) and Mr Michele Bernasconi (Switzerland).

In its deliberations following the hearing, the CAS Panel did not reach the same conclusions as the UCI Licensing Commission and decided to uphold the appeal. According to the CAS decision, the application of Katusha Management SA to be registered as a UCI ProTeam for the season 2013 of the UCI World Tour is granted.

In view of the urgency of the matter, the Panel has issued its decision today, without the grounds, which will be issued in writing in a few weeks.

peterst6906 wrote:That's the thing. Pat is not consistent at the moment, so who knows whether the UCI will stick with that decision (and I can imagine a fight from Riis if they do) or will go in a different direction.

peterst6906 wrote:That's the thing. Pat is not consistent at the moment, so who knows whether the UCI will stick with that decision (and I can imagine a fight from Riis if they do) or will go in a different direction.

This is just a big mess at the moment.

to the bolded...created by the uci's idiotic president and it's self-professed transparency which was anything but transparent

to me this was a case of prejudice and politics from get-go. to wrap the licensing commission's decision in the ethical cloth was just another case of the uci corruption and incompetence.

phat must go !

DJPbaltimore:'John Kerry is an honorable person and would not call out the Russians if there was not evidence', 'the 2 of you are russia stooges'in foreign policy there are no eternal friendships or eternal enemies, only eternal interests

Any team kicked out now would fight.
A lot of races are overdue for wildcard aplications, so it would basically destroy that teams whole season, with no chance of recovery.
In my opinion to kick a team out now would basically destroy it.

Actually this is a golden chance for UCI to kick Riis and the saxo boys out of the sport.